We are entering a Surrealist phase of personal technology. Any device you might imagine can be found online courtesy of an obscure Chinese factory, ready to be shipped out for a loved one’s holiday enjoyment: pocket-size artificial-intelligence gizmos (Rabbit r1, $199), in-home hologram machines (Code 27 Character Livehouse, $558), human-size robot servants (1X NEO, $20,000). The components of tech have become better and cheaper, from microchips to speakers and screens (have you seen how cheap a good TV is these days?), enabling out-there innovation. On the consumer side, we are bored of rote device designs; we’ve seen a dozen models of iPhone and crave something refreshingly different. Hence the proliferation of gadgets with nonsensical names, promising the same horsepower as major-brand equivalents but with new hardware twists and laughably low prices. We live in the age of the Swype ($18), a “rechargeable disposable” vape with an integrated touch screen on which one can check the weather and get notifications via Bluetooth, mingling nicotine and dopamine hits. Who doesn’t want to find that in the bottom of their stocking? The apps and devices collected here fulfill that old promise of technology: making your life better, or at least more interesting, even if just by encouraging you to log off.
Have More Fun
Enuosuma mini projector
This past summer, some friends and I rented a house on Fire Island that was bohemian enough to have no television. But there was a toddler in our group who wanted screen time, and the rest of us needed the option to turn our brains off after a long day in the sun. So I bought this mini projector ($50) on Amazon. It’s from a brand called Enuosuma, but that doesn’t matter; there are dozens of alternatives, and they’re all effectively the same. It turned out to be ideal for both Ms Rachel on YouTube and “Michael Clayton” on Apple TV, the picture bright and crisp, with enough adjustability to work on wonky walls. You don’t even have to feed a source into the projector; it connects to Wi-Fi and runs its own apps onboard. What a world!
Nintendo Switch 2
You could also use the projector to play a new profusion of portable video games. Nintendo’s recently released Switch 2 ($450) became a hit on top of a hit after the original Switch pioneered the concept that a console can be mobile. The new model upgrades the screen, memory, power, and battery life, and the inaugural games are takes on the classics: Donkey Kong Bananza ($70), Mario Kart World ($80), and Pokémon Legends: Z-A ($70). Nintendo’s not just for kids, but the harder-core gamer might enjoy an updated Steam Deck ($400) for playing PC games on the go. If you don’t know what kinds of games your giftee likes, just buy something like the RetroSnap Play ($70) or the Anbernic RG 40XXV ($53), two in a sketchy range of gadgets that emulate thousands of classic games at once. All of these machines will need power, and batteries have also improved of late. The comparatively tiny Anker Prime Power Bank ($80) will decrease charging anxiety for the whole family.
Healthier Handhelds
BOOX Palma 2 Pro
Of course, video games aren’t the healthiest forms of content, and who needs more screen time? E-ink is easier on the eyes, not to mention on the brain. The technology has evolved since the first Kindle—no more shuddering screen refreshes. The Daylight DC-1 ($729) is a high-powered, smooth, full-touch-screen computer with its own e-ink-like display and access to apps including Spotify, Slack, and Notion. It’s designed to break tech addictions, and it can be used in bright sunlight, so you can read on a park bench if you want to. The BOOX Palma has consolidated its status as the go-to pocket-size e-ink screen; its latest iteration, the Palma 2 Pro ($400), has full color (think newsprint-level saturation) and runs the Android 15 operating system to replace most of the functions of your smartphone. Even Kindle has a color version now, the Colorsoft ($250), which is ideal for fans of comics and graphic novels. Bibliophiles may still prize print, but there’s something about carrying dozens of books at once, and enjoying a self-illuminating reading experience, that tends to convert even the most committed Luddites.
Anti-Technology Technology
Fujifilm digital camera
Still, you might need stronger stuff, or just a passive-aggressive gift for the person in your life who is a little too obsessed with their screen. Nothing says “I would love to have more uninterrupted face-to-face conversations with you” like a gadget that makes someone’s phone less interesting. Brick ($60) is a plastic module containing an app that blocks selected other apps when it comes into contact with a smartphone. Stick it to the fridge and tap it with your phone before and after work, or for the duration of a dog walk or a date; then tap it again to reënable your device. Opal (free, or $100 annually for a “pro” version) does the same thing using only an app; the downside is that it’s easier to disable. I can testify to Opal’s utility: with its help, my screen time and social media use are way down, on weekdays, at least.
Another solution is to supplant your phone’s native features with better ones. The camera app Halide ($60) can remove all of an iPhone’s image processing, A.I., and otherwise, so that your camera produces satisfyingly film-like, more natural-looking digital photographs; it has encouraged me to be more intentional about the snapshots I take on my phone. The Fujifilm X Half digital camera ($845) mimics shooting with a film camera and has a fittingly vintage-style body. If you throw a copy of the tech critic Cory Doctorow’s recent book “Enshittification” ($28) in with the gift, your recipient may read it and become so disgusted with the value extraction that Silicon Valley performs on its users that they will lay off the phone on their own.
Adventures in Streaming
Giving someone a subscription to a new streaming service is a little like buying them a membership to an art museum: it’s a hint that their cultural-consumption habits could stand a little improvement. But don’t think of it as issuing criticism; think of it as lending a passport to adventure. Netflix has become the boring big-box store of video content. As an alternative, give the gift of the Manhattan indie movie theatre Metrograph’s streaming platform ($5 per month), for highly curated art films; or the BBC’s BritBox ($11 per month), for fans of endless bucolic detective dramas; or Crunchyroll ($8 per month), for niche anime. If your loved one is sick of Spotify or has started getting a little too into A.I.-generated music spam, change their lives with Idagio ($10 per month), a classical-music streaming service, or Nugs ($15 per month), a platform for live performances from rock and jam bands.
Avant-Garde Gadgets
Ozlo Sleepbuds
There’s no Christmas tradition like unwrapping a technological gift and then spending the rest of the day wrestling to get the thing working. The experience is all the more memorable when the intended function of the device in question is slightly strange or questionable. A startup called Ozlo makes Sleepbuds ($274) (originally designed at Bose), in-ear headphones that are slim enough not to feel uncomfortable when you sleep on your side, perfect for those who can’t stop consuming content even when they’re unconscious. For those who like to stand out and get stares on public transportation, try a folding-screen smartphone like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 ($1,600).
Meta Ray-Ban glasses
If your giftee is a fan of both artificial intelligence and blanket digital surveillance (the two go together, really), the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses ($800) have a six-hundred-by-six-hundred-pixel screen integrated into the lenses, a wrist band for reading gesture commands, and a pair of speakers, so that your Meta chatbot can talk back to you. If you’re wearing those, you may as well lean in all the way and buy a straight-up graphics-processing unit, such as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 ($2,000, if you can find one), recommended for running A.I. models at home. Friend ($129) is an A.I.-chatbot companion contained in a circular pendant, worn around the neck, that listens to everything happening around you, then texts you about it. Early reviews suggest that the companion is quite mean—perhaps consider buying a Friend for your frenemy. ♦














